#+TITLE: JavaInspect - Utility to visualize java software
------
+* (document settings) :noexport:
+** use dark style for TWBS-HTML exporter
+#+HTML_HEAD: <link href="https://bootswatch.com/3/darkly/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
+#+HTML_HEAD: <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.3/jquery.min.js"></script>
+#+HTML_HEAD: <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/twitter-bootstrap/3.3.5/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
+#+HTML_HEAD: <style type="text/css">
+#+HTML_HEAD: footer {background-color: #111 !important;}
+#+HTML_HEAD: pre {background-color: #111; color: #ccc;}
+#+HTML_HEAD: </style>
-- [[http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/gitweb/?p=javainspect.git;a=snapshot;h=HEAD;sf=tgz][download]]
-- [[http://svjatoslav.eu/programs.jsp][other applications hosted at svjatoslav.eu]]
-- Program author:
- - Svjatoslav Agejenko
+* General
+- This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ it under the terms of the [[https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html][GNU Lesser General Public License]] as
+ published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
+ License, or (at your option) any later version.
+
+- Program authors:
+ - Svjatoslav Agejenko
- Homepage: http://svjatoslav.eu
- Email: mailto://svjatoslav@svjatoslav.eu
+ - [[http://www.svjatoslav.eu/projects/][Other software projects hosted at svjatoslav.eu]]
-* General
-Goal: simplify/speed up understanding the computer program code by
-automatically visualizing its structure.
+ - Tony Bargnesi
+ - GitHub fork for the project:
+ https://github.com/abargnesi/javainspect
-JavaInspect is a Java library that you can embed into your Java
-project with a few lines of Maven configuration and then visualize any
-part of your Java program structure with few simple JavaInspect API
-calls at application runtime.
+** Source code
+- [[http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/gitweb/?p=javainspect.git;a=snapshot;h=HEAD;sf=tgz][Download latest snapshot in TAR GZ format]]
-JavaInspect uses Java reflection to discover class relations and
-structure and produces GraphViz dot file that describes your
-application. Then launches GraphViz to generate bitmap graph in PNG
-format on your Desktop directory.
+- [[http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/gitweb/?p=javainspect.git;a=summary][Browse Git repository online]]
-* Current status
-This is simple utility, quickly written. Tested on GNU Linux (can be
-relatively simply ported to other operating systems too). So far I
-used it for my own needs. There might be bugs and missing
-features. Feedback and code contributions are welcome.
+- Clone Git repository using command:
+ : git clone http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/git/javainspect.git
-* Example graphs
-Example visualization of [[http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/gitbrowse/sixth/doc/][Sixth]] project: [[http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/projects/sixth/codegraphs/][architecture graphs]].
+* Goal and operating principle
+Goal: simplify/speed up understanding the computer program code by
+automatically visualizing its structure.
-A very simple example:
+[[http://www3.svjatoslav.eu/projects/sixth-3d/graphs/][See example produced graphs]] for [[http://www3.svjatoslav.eu/projects/sixth-3d/][Sixth 3D - 3D engine project]].
-[[file:example.png][file:example.resized.png]]
+JavaInspect can be used as a [[id:acf1896a-74b4-4914-acf6-a77075e07f25][standalone commandline utility]] as well as
+[[id:bbeeffc8-3767-440d-8d93-ec9124dd60ee][java library]]. JavaInspect uses primarily Java built-in reflection to
+discover and visualize any part of Java program.
+JavaInspect currently has no GUI, configuration files, embedded
+scripting support, direct Maven or Ant integration. See [[id:2ad2889e-6c95-4662-b3f4-2c341fc74522][usage]] to learn
+how to instuct Javainspect what to do.
-Graph legend:
+After discovering application structure and optionally filtering out
+unimportant parts, JavaInspect produces GraphViz dot file that
+describes data to be visualized. Then launches GraphViz to generate
+bitmap graph in PNG or SVG format.
-file:legend.png
+By default on your Desktop directory when operated in library mode or
+current working directory when operated as standalone commandline
+application.
-* Usage example 1
+Notes:
++ JavaInspect is developed and tested so far only on GNU/Linux.
++ See: [[https://github.com/pahen/madge][Madge - similar tool for JavaScript]]
+
+* Example graphs
++ A very simple example:
+
+ [[file:example.png][file:example.resized.png]]
+
+ Graph legend:
+
+ file:legend.png
+
++ [[http://www3.svjatoslav.eu/projects/sixth-3d/graphs/][See example produced graphs]] for [[http://www3.svjatoslav.eu/projects/sixth-3d/][Sixth 3D - 3D engine project]].
+
+* Usage
+ :PROPERTIES:
+ :ID: 2ad2889e-6c95-4662-b3f4-2c341fc74522
+ :END:
+JavaInspect can be controlled in 2 different ways:
++ [[id:acf1896a-74b4-4914-acf6-a77075e07f25][as standalone commandline utility]]
++ [[id:bbeeffc8-3767-440d-8d93-ec9124dd60ee][as embedded Java library via Java API]]
+
+** usage as commandline utility
+ :PROPERTIES:
+ :ID: acf1896a-74b4-4914-acf6-a77075e07f25
+ :END:
+To enable commandline support, (study and) execute script:
+: commandline launcher/install
+
+Warning: It was tested only on Debian Stretch linux.
+
+Available commandline arguments:
+#+BEGIN_VERSE
+-j (existing files)...
+ JAR file(s) to render.
+
+-n (mandatory, string)
+ Graph name.
+
+--debug
+ Show debug info.
+
+-k
+ Keep dot file.
+
+-h
+ Hide orphaned classes.
+
+-w (one to many strings)...
+ Whitelist glob(s).
+
+-b (one to many strings)...
+ Blacklist glob(s).
+
+-d (existingdirectory)
+ Target directory. Default is current directory.
+
+-t (options: png, svg)
+ Target image type. Default is: svg.
+#+END_VERSE
+** usage via Java API
+ :PROPERTIES:
+ :ID: bbeeffc8-3767-440d-8d93-ec9124dd60ee
+ :END:
+Requires that classes to be visualised are available in the classpath.
+
+To get JavaInspect into same classpath with your projecs I so far came
+up with 2 solutions:
+
+1. Add JavaInspect library in your project as a dependency.
+
+2. Create new Java project for the purpose visualizing your other
+ projects and include JavaInspect and your projecs binary artifacts
+ (Jar's) into new project classpath. Built binary Jar's (with no
+ source code) are sufficient because JavaInspect operates via
+ reflection.
+
+Simple Java based control/configuration code needs to be written for
+each project. I usually put such code into directories devoted for
+JUnit tests. Because it needs not to be compiled/embedded into final
+product or project artifact I'm just willing to visualize.
+
+Control code in general does the following:
+1. Create graph object.
+2. Java reflection/classloaders does not provide mechanism for
+ discovering all classes under given package. Therefore you need to
+ declare at least some classes to be added to the graph by:
+ + Manually adding individual classes to the graph.
+ + and/or: Let GraphViz recursively scan and parse specified
+ directories with Java source code files to discover class names.
+ + For every class added to the graph, GraphViz will recursively
+ inspect it and add all referecned classes to the graph as well.
+3. Graphs easilly get very big and complex so optionally we filter
+ important code using classname wildcards patterns based blacklist
+ and/or whitelist.
+4. Optionally we can tune some rendering parameters like:
+ + Possibility to remove orphaned classes (classes with no
+ references) from the graph.
+ + Specify target directory for generated visualization
+ files. (Default is user desktop directory)
+ + Keep intermediate GraphViz dot file for later inspection.
+5. Render graph.
+
+
+*** example 1: individually picked objects
This example demonstrates generating of class graph from hand picked
-classes.
+classes and visualizing GraphViz itself.
#+BEGIN_SRC java
- // Create graph
- final ClassGraph graph = new ClassGraph();
- // While classes and objects can be immediately passed to ClassGraph
- // constructor as arguments, it is also possible to add them one by
- // one as in the following example.
+// Create graph
+final ClassGraph graph = new ClassGraph();
- // Add some object to the graph.
- graph.addObject(graph);
+// Add some random object to the graph. GraphViz will detect Class from
+// the object.
+graph.add(graph);
- // Add some class to the graph.
- graph.addClass(Utils.class);
+// Also add some random class to the graph.
+graph.add(Utils.class);
+
+// Keep intermediary GraphViz DOT file for reference.
+graph.setKeepDotFile(true);
+
+// Produce bitmap image titled "JavaInspect.png" to the user Desktop
+// directory
+graph.generateGraph("JavaInspect");
- // Produce bitmap image titled "JavaInspect.png" to the user Desktop
- // directory and keep intermediary GraphViz DOT file for reference.
- graph.generateGraph("JavaInspect", true);
#+END_SRC
+Note: if desired, more compact version of the above:
+#+BEGIN_SRC java
+new ClassGraph().add(randomObject, RandomClass.class)
+ .setKeepDotFile(true).generateGraph("JavaInspect");
+#+END_SRC
Result:
- Generated DOT file: [[file:JavaInspect.dot][JavaInspect.dot]]
- Generated PNG image: [[file:JavaInspect.png][JavaInspect.png]]
-* Usage example 2
-Recursively scan current directory for Java source code and attempt to
-detect class names from there to be added to the graph.
-
+*** example 2: scan java code, apply filters
#+BEGIN_SRC java
- graph.addProject(".");
+// Create graph
+final ClassGraph graph = new ClassGraph();
- // Blacklist example classes from being shown on the graph
- graph.getFilter().blacklistClassPattern(
- "eu.svjatoslav.inspector.java.structure.example.*");
+// Recursively scan current directory for Java source code and attempt
+// to detect class names from there to be added to the graph.
+graph.addProject(".");
- // do not show single classes with no relationships on the graph
- graph.hideOrphanedClasses();
+// Blacklist example classes from being shown on the graph
+graph.blacklistClassPattern("eu.svjatoslav.inspector.java.structure.example.*");
- // Produce bitmap image titled "JavaInspect full project.png" to the
- // user Desktop directory.
- graph.generateGraph("JavaInspect full project");
+// do not show single classes with no relationships on the graph
+graph.hideOrphanedClasses();
+
+// Produce bitmap image titled "JavaInspect full project.png" to the
+// user Desktop directory.
+graph.generateGraph("JavaInspect full project");
#+END_SRC
Result:
- Generated PNG image: [[file:JavaInspect%20full%20project.png][JavaInspect full project.png]]
-* Embedding JavaInspect in your Maven project
+*** example 3: GraphViz embedded in another project
+1. Download project Sixth [[http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/gitweb/?p=sixth.git;a=snapshot;h=HEAD;sf=tgz][code snapshot]].
+2. Inspect and run *DataGraph.java*.
+
+*** Embedding JavaInspect in your Maven project
Declare JavaInspect as dependency:
#+BEGIN_SRC xml
- <dependencies>
- ...
- <dependency>
- <groupId>eu.svjatoslav</groupId>
-
<artifactId>javainspect</artifactId>
- <version>1.3</version>
- </dependency>
- ...
- </dependencies>
+<dependencies>
+ ...
+ <dependency>
+ <groupId>eu.svjatoslav</groupId>
+ <artifactId>javainspect</artifactId>
+ <version>1.6</version>
+ </dependency>
+ ...
+</dependencies>
#+END_SRC
Add Maven repository to retrieve artifact from:
#+BEGIN_SRC xml
- <repositories>
- ...
- <repository>
- <id>svjatoslav.eu</id>
- <name>Svjatoslav repository</name>
- <url>http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/maven/</url>
- </repository>
- ...
- </repositories>
+<repositories>
+ ...
+ <repository>
+ <id>svjatoslav.eu</id>
+ <name>Svjatoslav repository</name>
+ <url>http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/maven/</url>
+ </repository>
+ ...
+</repositories>
#+END_SRC
* Requirements
-
[[http://www.graphviz.org/][GraphViz]] - shall be installed on the computer.
On Ubuntu/Debian use:
-: sudo apt-get install graphviz
+#+BEGIN_SRC sh
+sudo apt-get install graphviz
+#+END_SRC
+* TO DO
+Note: Because this is side project (and I have many of them) I can
+only contribute few hours per year at average. Any help is welcome. A
+LOT of cool ideas could be implemented. For intstance:
+
+- BUG: Should not hide references if there are too many of them to
+ classes if referring classes are not visible anyway because of
+ blacklist/whitelist rules. Basically reference counting should
+ exclude not visible classes.
+
+- BUG: Orphaned class removal does not work always. There are many
+ bugs and corner cases to find and fix still.
+
+- BUG: Code is not very readable. Document and refactor for better
+ maintainability.
+
+- FEATURE: Create installable DEB package.
+ - Submit it to some Debian developer for integration or become
+ Debian package maintainer.
+
+- FEATURE: Make it modular. That is: central part, an application
+ model could be standalone and serializable.
+
+ - There could be multiple ways to acquire model:
+ - By introspecting application via Java reflections (current mode
+ of operation).
+ - By parsing java source. (unfinished)
+
+ - There could be ways to manipulate model:
+ - Store/load/compare.
+ - Trim uninteresting parts.
+ - Highlight important parts.
+
+ - There could be multiple ways to render model:
+ - PNG/SVG (currently implemented)
+ - PlantUML (TODO)
+ - Interactive 3D visualization (TODO)
+
+- FEATURE: Replace internal java parser in package
+ eu.svjatoslav.inspector.java.methods with: https://javaparser.org/
+
+- FEATURE: Integarte with [[http://plantuml.com/class-diagram][PlantUML]].
+
+- FEATURE: Add dark theme for generated graphs.
+
+- FEATURE: Sort Class fields by alphabet.
+
+- FEATURE: Visualize also concrete field values so it could be used as
+ ultra cool runtime logging/debugging framework.
+
+- FEATURE: Possibility to visualize structure and data from JVM
+ snapshot.
+
+- FEATURE: Possibility to attach to remote process to visualize
+ data/structure using JVM debug port and mechanism.
+
+- FEATURE: Possibility to attach to JVM using JVM agent.
+
+- FEATURE: Possibility to inspect graphs in 3D using [[http://www2.svjatoslav.eu/gitbrowse/sixth-3d/doc/index.html][Sixth 3D engine]].
+
+- FEATURE: Possibility to select classes/fields/values to be
+ visualized in some graph query language. For greater flexibility in
+ comparison to currently supported glob syntax.
+
+- FEATURE: Add option to control JavaInspect via JSON or XML config
+ file. For example different graphs for given project could be
+ defined once in plain text config, possibly with the aid of some
+ interactive utility. Then defined graphs could be updated as part of
+ project build or release process.
+
+- FEATURE: Configurable maven plugin to generate graphs as part of the
+ project build/release process.
projects / javainspect.git / blobdiff